"It's a mess here": YVR passenger stuck in plane for 11 hours on tarmac

Dec 20 2022, 6:55 pm

Passengers at YVR airport were stuck for hours on planes waiting for a gate to open so they could be let out after a massive dump of snow.

Seham Asfar, a community mental health worker in the Lower Mainland, told Daily Hive she waited for 11 hours in a plane sitting on the tarmac.

“We did not know how long the ordeal was going to be,” said Asfar, who was flying Air Canada from Phoenix, Arizona, to Vancouver, BC.

“A usual three-hour flight ended up taking 14 hours,” said Asfar.

“YVR did not do a good enough job of keeping us updated,” said Asfar. “I want to warn other travellers to not travel the next few days at YVR. It is a mess here and not reliable.”

“Their tweets stated there were ‘significant delays’ and flights cancelled. They never mentioned the hundreds of people and multiple planes stuck on the tarmac,” said Afar.

 

After an initial five-hour delay, Asfar finally landed at YVR at around 10 pm on Monday, December 19.

But on their arrival, the captain announced they were waiting for a gate to deplane.

“The captain would come on about every hour to announce how there are lengthy delays, and we are still waiting for a gate,” said Asfar. “The captains and flight crew updated us as much as they could. They didn’t know what was going on either, and I’m sure they were not enjoying the extended tarmac wait either.”

According to Asfar, even though flights were cancelled, the planes sat empty at the YVR gates.

“Instead of moving these empty planes from the gates, they left them there. So when all of these planes landed during the snow storm, they had no gate to deplane at,” said Asfar.

“They also never once tried to bring over stairs and busses to try and have us deplane on the tarmac. We found this strange, as we saw other planes having this done,” said Asfar.

The captain stopped giving updates between 2:30 am and 5 am to let people sleep – and because there was nothing to report on. “We were simply stuck on the runway.”

They were hungry, too.

“The flight attendants came around with granola bars and water, tea, and juice. However, that was the only food we were offered. They had no other food. Every person received two granola bars for an 11-hour delay,” said Asfar.

“People didn’t pack snacks. It was supposed to be a quick flight.”

plane

Supplied

“There were babies crying and elderly people who were clearly not having a great time.”

At around 6 am, the plane was refuelled. Then at around 8 am, the captain said they were next in line for a gate, and they got there just before 9 am – after sitting on the tarmac for 11 hours.

Daily Hive has reached out to YVR to learn more and will update this story.

As for Asfar, her travel advice is always to bring a snack. “You never know when you will get stranded on a plane and might need it,” she said.

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